The Music Treatises of Thomas Ravenscroft

Thomas Ravenscroft is best-known as a composer of rounds owing to his three published collections: Pammelia and Deuteromelia (both 1609), and Melismata (1611), in addition to his harmonizations of the Whole Booke of Psalmes (1621) and his original sacred works. A theorist as well as a composer and editor, Ravenscroft wrote two treatises on music theory: the well-known A Briefe Discourse (1614), and 'A Treatise of Practicall Musicke' (c.1607), which remains in manuscript. This is the first book to bring together both theoretical works by this important Jacobean musician and to provide critical studies and transcriptions of these treatises. A Briefe Discourse furthermore introduces an anthology of music by Ravenscroft, John Bennet, and Ravenscroft's mentor, Edward Pearce, illustrating some of the precepts in the treatise. The critical discussion provided by Duffin will help explain Ravenscroft's complicated consideration of mensuration, in particular.

Ross W. Duffin earned a doctorate in performance practice at Stanford. Since 1978, he has directed the historical performance program at Case Western Reserve University as Kulas Professor of Music. A two-time award winner from the American Musicological Society, his specialties are Flemish and English Renaissance music and historical tunings.

Contents: General introduction: Ravenscroft's biography; Ravenscroft's circle. Introduction to the Treatises: Treatise of Practicall Musicke (British Library Additional MS 19758); A Briefe Discourse; Relationship between the treatises; The legacy of the treatises; Harmonicall Examples. 'Treatise of Practicall Musicke' (British Library Additional MS 19758); Notes. A Briefe Discourse; Notes. Harmonicall Examples: Hunting; Hawking; Dauncing; Drinking; Enamoring. Notes; Bibliography; Index.